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The wealthier countries have hoarded enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations nearly three times over

A research report undertaken by Oxfam showed that vaccinating the poorest half the world against Covid-19 would cost less than four months profit from Big Pharma. An Alliance of campaigning organizations including Oxfam, Amnesty International, Frontline AIDS, and Global Justice Now, warn that the majority of people living in low income countries will not have access to a vaccine until 2023/2024 if action is not taken by global governments to roll out a people’s vaccine.

The call of the Alliance is for a People’s Vaccine, a vaccine that’s patent free, a mandatory worldwide sharing of all related knowledge and intellectual property. Caroline Reid from Oxfam Ireland said , “There should be a commitment to transfer the technology and to ramp up and build capacity to produce the vaccine, it should be provided at a transparent cost price without profit; it should be available to all, frontline workers from Dublin to nurses in Delhi.” 

The pandemic has had disproportionately impacted the economy of third world countries leaving billions of people being at risk of being pushed into hunger and poverty. People in third world countries fear that they might die from starvation before they die from Covid, many of whom have been laid off as result of shutdowns across the western world. Caroline Reid said that it is important for people to be aware that, “these are the people that make the clothes that we buy on Henry Street or Grafton Street here, so when Covid first hit those workers were basically told to go home.” The shutdowns have led to the cancellation of production and a halt in supply to retailers which has had a knock effect for these workers. She added “They don’t have welfare systems like we have in Ireland.”

Caroline Reid said, “Pharma is an industry that does generate a lot of income, this is a global pandemic it’s unprecedented times and unprecedented response is needed.” However, Michael Mc Carthy of Oxfam added that “It is ultimately not up to us to persuade private actors to change, it’s the role of government to regulate how they operate for the common good.”

Michael D Higgins has pledged his support for the alliance saying that “Solidarity within and between countries and the private sector is essential if we are to overcome the challenges presented to us by Covid with regard to accessing appropriate medical treatment.”

To date all of Moderna’s doses and 96% of Pfizer/BioNtech doses have been acquired by wealthier countries. The people behind Oxford Astra have pledged to provide 64% of their doses to people in developing nations. They are likely to only reach 18% of the world’s population by next year at most. This demonstrates that one company alone could not vaccinate the world, signifying why unity on this issue is vital.

Caroline added, “We have seen in countries across Europe, this virus has crippled some of the most advanced health care systems in the world. So for countries with already struggling health systems that haven’t had the resources to invest in health services, the situation is really bad and unnecessary lives are being lost.”

To date forty countries have pledged their support for the Covid technology access pool, an initiative similar to the Alliance, that was set up by WHO (World Health Organisation.)

The hard border and a fall out from Brexit may be too hard a fall for low income families.  

Social Justice Ireland is a non-profit organization that advocates for equality and justice for all members of society. They focus on policy reform, on issues related to poverty, inequality, social exclusion and sustainability. This year they are giving special priority to the issues surrounding Brexit and the impact it will have on the poorest in society.

The prospect of a hard-Brexit has been overshadowed by the threat of Covid-19 in recent months. However, the potential for sudden and significant changes in economic activity and living standards from January 1st 2021 remains a major concern to low income families. Last year saw increased employment and high rates of economic growth, despite this there are still 637,000 people living in poverty in Ireland, 193,600 are children under the age of 18.

Michelle Murphy, Research Policy Analyst at Social Justice Ireland, expressed concern over the failure by Government to increase social welfare rates in the Budget 2021 saying “for two years in a row now we haven’t seen an increase in welfare rates.” Ms. Murphy is also worried about the lack of discussion around Brexit and the impact it will have on low income families, adding “they do not feature in any of the Brexit discussions, nor do they feature in the government Brexit fund itself.” 

 An ESRI report, from March 2018, highlighted the dependence of the Irish consumers on imports from other states. In particular, it noted the concentration of UK imports on household expenditure in areas such as food. Tariffs on foods coming in from the United Kingdom and the failure by Government to increase core social welfare rates in Budget 2021 means that “low income families will be disproportionately impacted by the increase in the price of food, which is going to come after January.” Ms. Murphy added that “the poorest 30 percent of the population spend 20 percent of their disposable income on food every week, the rest on transport, accommodation and energy bills. If you see a rise in the cost of food it’s going be very difficult for this cohort to absorb that increase.” The ESRI found that consumer prices would rise by between 2% and 3.1% and this would raise the cost of living for the average Irish households by between €892 and €1,360 a year.

 Ms. Murphy said “despite four years of successive economic growth and high employment rates, well in advance of the impact of covid, we are nowhere near reaching the 2020 child poverty target or the national poverty target that was set back in 2010.” Social Justice Ireland welcomed the commitment to the living wage within the programme for Government, yet it still begged the question, “Why is child poverty not a political priority?”

Ms. Murphy was adamant that in order for the public to really help those who are vulnerable they needed to “make poverty a priority for themselves and put pressure on local elected representatives.” In the run up to Christmas, she urged people to shop local and donate to charities such as SVP.

 A German company, which has turned over 5.6 billion net in 2018, refuses to pay their employees a living wage. Flags have lined the picket fence in Rathcoole since Thursday as workers from Dachser Logistics continue to strike.

Jean O ‘Dowd is one of six regional officers from Unite the union in the Republic of Ireland and she represents just under 3000 members in her constituency. Her members have tried consistently since 2017 to engage with the Dachser but the company has refused.  In July 2019the Labour Court gave a very strong recommendation that the company should work with Unite through the WRC and recognize that the employees are entitled to be represented by union of their choice. Dachser has completely ignored this labour court recommendation which Ms O’Dowd said is “very bad form.”

After the announcement of Strike action in September Dachser made a last ditch attempt to engage in negotiations. However, Ms O’ Dowd said that her members were less than satisfied, with what she described as a “ridiculous offer” of 1.5% increase in pay and no recognition of Unite as their union. “These lads are skilled Forklift workers, working constant nights, and earning 12.29 per hour, less than the living wage.” Dascher deals with supplying pharmaceuticals and chemicals, spills that are not always dealt with adequately, horrifying stories have been reported where “chemicals have been spilt in the warehouse and sand was thrown over it while the lads continued to the load the trucks.”

 In a statement made to Kidare FM Dascher said that they have given a 12.5% pay increase in the last three years.  Ms O’Dowd said “what they have actually done is changed the payment structure. They have taken overtime and shift allowance away and integrated that with the basic pay, taking away any overtime that was there means there is no addition to the member’s pockets at the end of the week.”

Patrick who was on the picket line in Rathcoole on Friday afternoon said that he was glad to be a member of Unite to have some “back up.” Patrick has been an employee at Dascher Logistics for 13 years and said the biggest pay increase he has seen in a year was 0.76%, which at 12.39 an hour would be just 9c.

Ms O’Dowd says they have spoken to the head office in Germany and in the Netherlands, their representatives have said they have put management teams in Ireland are not going to instruct them on how to run the business in Ireland. “The issue really boils down to legislation, in Germany, all of the Dachser employees are unionized and the unions are recognized, they all get pay rises every year and it is in their agreement, great working conditions, paid properly.” The problem in Ireland is that it’s not in our legislation so Dachser are taking the position that ‘if we don’t have to do it, we are not going to do it.’

Jean said the Dachser lads will pull the pickets off in a heartbeat if they go through the WRC give them the recognition and offer a substantial pay increase.